The Library of Virginia will host a Heritage Day during National Preservation Week to highlight the importance of preserving Virginia history. A special one-day exhibition of items conserved through the Adopt Virginia's History program and other rare archival materials will be on display. Special Collections viewing (5:00-6:30 PM) followed by a wine-and-cheese reception (6:30–7:30 PM).

This May the City of Richmond is host to the 2014 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships. More than 400 collegiate racers from 100 schools and thousands of fans across the nation will be in attendance, bringing national and international attention to the area.
Be aware that the race route goes through downtown Richmond, which will result in numerous road closures affecting accessibility to the Library of Virginia and its underground parking deck. Broad, 8th, and 9th streets in our immediate area will be closed to vehicular traffic most of the day on Friday, May 2. To park in our underground deck that day, approach the building from Marshall Street or 8th Street. You'll be allowed access past the street barricades to the Library's parking deck and will need to enter from 8th Street and exit using the 9th Street ramp.

Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Bill Lohmann and photographer Bob Brown have traveled around Virginia for many years. Back Roads: People, Places and Pie from Around Virginia features a collection of Brown's photographs from the road with insights from Lohmann that tell the stories behind the pictures. Reception (wine and cheese) 5:30–6:30 PM, book talk 6:00–7:00 PM, and book signing 7:00–7:30 PM.

Lynn Cullen will discuss and sign her new novel, Mrs. Poe, inspired by literature's most haunting love triangle: Edgar Allan Poe, his tubercular young wife, and a lady poet. Closely based on Poe's life and writings, and rich with authentic historical detail, Mrs. Poe is a novel of romantic obsession, set in the fascinating world of New York's literati scene of the 1840s.

Three up-and-coming writers with connections to Virginia Commonwealth University will offer readings of their recent work: Paula Champa, who just published her first novel, The Afterlife of Emerson Tang; Emilia Phillips, who just published her first collection of poems, Signaletics; and Joshua Poteat, author of Ornithologies and Illustrating the Machine that Makes the World.

THIRD ANNUAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIRFriday, May 30, 2014—Saturday, May 31, 2014

Join us for the Friday evening wine-and-cheese reception (5:30–7:30 PM), which features a special presentation by Jill Deiss, founder of Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding. Her 15-minute talk, entitled “The Restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s Set of Aeschylus Tragedies, Originally Bound by Frederick Mayo of Richmond,” will be offered at three different times (5:30 PM, 6:00 PM, and 6:30 PM).

The Library of Virginia hosts the Antiquarian Book Fair in conjunction with the Virginia Antiquarian Booksellers' Association and with the support of the Southeast Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America.

Discover the power of the flower. Delve into Virginia's natural environment through Flora of Virginia, an exhibition featuring hundreds of colorful illustrations from the Library of Virginia's collections. Learn fun facts about Virginia's native plants. Examine the history of botanical description and illustration. Explore the personalities behind the folks who collected and described these plants. Try your hand at sketching a specimen at the drawing station. Check our Web calendar for information about exhibition-related events.